Senior Living Innovation Challenge

Matiu Bush has taken out the $20,000 Senior Living Innovation Challenge for his social networking site One Good Street. The announcement was made at a sold-out gala function showcasing the six competition finalists at QUT’s Gardens Point campus on Tuesday 27 February.

Meg Lowry and Matiu Bush jointly won the audience vote as People’s Choice Award winners. Judges were so impressed with the quality of presentations that they awarded special honorary mentions to Christof Niesel and Meg Lowry.

Matiu Bush delivers his winning pitch during the Senior Living Innovation Challenge.

Matiu Bush, One Good Street
Overall winner and People’s Choice Award winnerWinning innovation One Good Street aims to combat senior isolation by matching and connecting older residents with suitable companions who live nearby. The networking site also champions neighbour initiated care by providing a supported platform to offer assistance, knowledge and skills to elderly people.

Meg Lowry, The Balance Yourself book and Clock Yourself appPeople’s Choice and Honorary Mention Award winnerOne in three people aged 65+ will fall at least once a year. Rather than just rehabilitating people after they fall and fracture, Brisbane physiotherapist Meg Lowry has developed the Balance Yourself step-by-step guidebook to better balance. Her low-tech Clock Yourself app presents a series of brain games performed with the body and designed to prevent falls.

Christof Niesel, The Next Stage: Rethinking entrepreneurial spaces for older adultsHonorary Mention Award winner
Shifts in traditional employment and retirement have made it increasingly important to ensure older adults have the freedom and control to continue working in whatever domains they choose. This idea seeks to bring like-minded persons together where they can seek tutelage, create business opportunities and remain current with the changing, often digital dynamic of modern employment.

An Inclusive Community, Pearl JamesFinalistThe ‘Inclusive Community’ is a reinvention of the community centre and focuses on creating shared community spaces to foster intergenerational interaction and counter the negative effects of elderly age-segregation. It’s a model that aging communities could incorporate into their built environments to generate a more socially inclusive and age-friendly future.

Robin Drogemuller, Disaggregating senior care provision through community integrationFinalistOn Google Earth many aged care developments look like islands in a sea of suburbia. This project aims to provide improved physical facilities, embedded in the community, to which current aged care services could be provided incrementally and economically. The concept champions the gradual adaption of a suburb to use slightly increased densities to improve living options for all in that community.

Jevaroo, Marita ChengFinalistA telepresence robotic arm on a movable platform, Jevaroo empowers seniors and saves carers’ travel time and costs. It can be controlled by an elderly person in the same room over Bluetooth or by a carer in another location via Wi-Fi in order to do chores around the home.

Read more about the Senior Living Innovation Challenge

The Senior Living Innovation Challenge was launched in late 2017 to uncover game-changing ideas that will empower people over 65 to live life they choose. Whether it’s housing, digital, technology, services or other innovative concepts, the competition encouraged new thinking and ideas to enable older people to actively participate in their community. The competition also aimed to challenge traditional stereotypes of older people and help spark conversations on how we can help shape the products and services offered to older people to better meet their needs and lifestyles.

Organisers were delighted with the high calibre of entries received, demonstrating new thinking in housing, digital media, technology, robotics and other services. After much deliberation, they narrowed down the field to just six finalists.

The challenge is an initiative of Senior Living Innovation, a major research collaboration between QUT’s Institute for Future Environments and leading industry organisations Bolton Clarke, Aveo, Ballycara and IRT Group. Senior Living Innovation aims to bring to life the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global Age Friendly Cities and active ageing principles. Three Senior Living Innovation partners are not-for-profit organisations and all partners provide accommodation and health services to older people.